For free actual time breaking information alerts despatched straight to your inbox signal as much as our breaking information emails
Sign as much as our free breaking information emails
A twisted assassin who lured an harmless man to a secluded riverbank and drowned him allowed his household to query whether or not he had killed himself for practically two years.
In an act of “pure contempt”, Scarlett Blake, 26, pursued this false narrative when she ultimately stood trial for the homicide of Jorge Martin Carreno, 30, who was discovered within the River Cherwell in Oxford on 26 July 2021.
Having loved a night out with associates, Mr Carreno was approached by Blake whereas sitting on a bench in Radcliffe Square throughout the early hours of the morning.
The two have been seen walking on CCTV to the secluded Parsons Pleasure space, the place she is believed to have hit him within the head, strangled him after which held him underneath the water.
Jorge Martin Carreno’s household repeatedly denied suggestion he was suicidal
(Thames Valley Police/PA Wire)
Despite Thames Valley Police releasing a number of media appeals with photographs of Blake walking together with her sufferer, his dying was initially handled as unexplained however not suspicious.
After his inquest closed in May 2022, his household have been left pleading with the police to proceed investigating. At the time, the pathology proof was inconclusive, and the coroner might solely ship a story verdict.
Given that Blake had been carrying a heavy-duty coat with a facemask, she was not recognized till April 2023, when her former girlfriend contacted law enforcement officials from the US to tell them of Blake’s identification and function in Mr Carreno’s dying.
Scarlet Blake had denied murdering Mr Carreno regardless of boasting about it to her companions
(PA Media)
Through their investigation, police found that Blake had an obsession with homicide, violence and strangulation, and had boasted about her standing as a killer to her companions.
Just 4 months earlier than killing the BMW employee, she had stolen a neighbour’s cat and brutally dissected it on a livestream video.
In a homage to the Netflix documetary Don’t F*** With Cats, which sees Luka Magnotta homicide kittens earlier than killing a scholar, she performed the identical New Order tune True Faith as she subjected the animal to “intense pain”.
She later placed its physique in a blender, posed with its severed head and stored its coronary heart as a memento.
CCTV reveals cat killer walking streets of Oxford ‘on the lookout for a sufferer’
In her cross-examination, she claimed that her girlfriend Ashlynn Bell had inspired her to kill the cat, and had deriven sexual gratification from the considered her murdering a human being.
While additionally returning to the crime scene to take {a photograph} with a brand new associate, she additionally mentioned that she killed Mr Carreno as “my lover said it would be hot”.
However, she claimed earlier than the jury that she had left him alive on the Parsons Pleasure riverbank, and urged he could have taken his personal life.
Taking to the witness stand, his former associate Irene Hidalgo mentioned that Mr Carreno had suffered from bouts of melancholy however had undergone remedy and was “happy” on the time he died.
Breaking down in tears, she mentioned he advised her: “I’m ready to enjoy every single drop of this life. I spent too much time worrying.”
Blake had beforehand filmed herself dissecting a neighbour’s cat
(Thames Valley Police/PA Wire)
“He was very trusting,” she added. “He trusted everyone even if you told him not to. He was making jokes all the time,” she mentioned.
“He was an active and joyful person. He was the kindest person I ever met.”
The two had remained associates after ending their relationship in 2021, and Ms Hidalgo grew to become involved for his welfare after he stopped replying to her messages, and started contacting folks she knew had been with him that evening.
As she knew his password for his Google account, she was capable of see that his telephone had final been lively within the Parsons Pleasure space. Visibly emotional, she later advised jurors she had entered the water to see how he might have drowned in a single foot of water when he was a naturally good swimmer.
His work colleague, Sashko Stoimenov, who had been with him on the Cow & Creek pub, additionally mentioned that he had been in a “happy” temper earlier than his dying, and had proven no indicators of melancholy or suicidal ideas.
Text messages and pictures confirmed Blake’s obsession with dying and homicide
(Thames Valley Police )
“He was saying he wanted to settle down and wanted to get married and have children and a family,” he mentioned.
Sentencing her, Mr Justice Chamberlain mentioned that Blake had proven full indifference to the struggling of Mr Carreno’s household, in pursuing the suggestion that he had killed himself.
“The suggestion was bound to be profoundly distressing to Jorge’s family and friends,” he mentioned. “If there had been any truth to it, they might well ask themselves whether there was anything they could have done to save him.
“There was no truth to it whatsoever. All the evidence showed Jorge to be happy and looking forward to the future. There was no way his family or friends could have known what you had planned for him and nothing they could have done to save him from you.”
